Irrfan Khan urges Hollywood to adopt Bolly culture

Khan has been involved in almost 90 films throughout his career, including The Namesake, and is presently shooting with Tom Hanks in Ron Howard’s adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel Inferno, due for release next year.

Irrfan Khan at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival in 2013. Sarah Dea / The National

Indian actor Irrfan Khan, lauded for his roles in The Lunchbox and Life of Pi, has urged Hollywood directors to adopt Bollywood's love of flamboyant song-and-dance routines.

The Bollywood star, whose credits include The Amazing Spider-Man and The Darjeeling Limited, said that US blockbusters would benefit from an injection of Indian-style musical hoopla.

Khan, 48, is one of India’s most internationally recognised exports, carving a stellar career at home and in Hollywood where he has worked with Oscar-winning directors Danny Boyle and Ang Lee.

Ahead of the US release on June 12 of Jurassic World, Khan's latest Hollywood film, the Rajasthan-born actor said the American movie industry could learn a lot from its Indian counterpart.

“The informality and personal connections in Bollywood are nice,” said Khan. “Things are too compartmentalised in Hollywood and the system can be rigid. Also they should imbibe our song-and-dance culture. I think Hollywood could do wonders with it.”

Khan, who charmed global audiences in The Lunchbox as a lonely accountant who exchanges hidden letters with a neglected housewife, is currently hot property in both major film industries. Piku, in which he has a supporting role as a taxi driver, has dominated Indian box offices since early May. He will also star in action-drama Jazbaa (Passion) alongside Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The film is scheduled for release in October.

Khan has been involved in almost 90 films throughout his career, including The Namesake, and is presently shooting with Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's adaptation of Dan Brown's novel Inferno, due out next year.

“In India an actor with one hit in the bag can survive with PR and continue working in another four films, until he delivers his next hit,” says Khan. “Social media activity and perception works more over here, but in Hollywood, you have to perform and deliver.

“The irony is that while it is a heavily marketing-based industry, you cannot survive there on the basis of marketing [alone],” he added.

He rues the fact that Indian films no longer always include songs as they did in the 1960s and 1970s.

"Music was [our] originality," says Khan. However, he appreciates that recent hits such as Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and Lee's Life of Pi have helped change the perception of Indian movies internationally.

"Although Slumdog and Pi are not Indian films, they are perceived to be, and they are films that are engaging with audiences abroad," says Khan.